If you are low on money and feeling crafty, boy have I got the pet project for you:

The T-Shirt Tugga Toy!

All you need are T-shirts you don’t mind cutting up and scissors.

To make a toy for a large dog:

1. Cut 20 strips 1 inch wide and 20 inches long from the T-shirt (or several tshirts if you want color variety).

2. Put all the strips together and tie a knot in one end.

3. Separate your strips into 3 groups and braid tightly until you’ve braided almost all of it.

4. Then tie a knot in the other end.

Voila! You’re done!

Variations:

For smaller dogs, use fewer strips of fabric and shorter strips.

Bryant Animal Control and Adoption Center is doing a Toy or Treat Drive for the animals from now until Halloween. They put plastic trick or treat buckets on the kennels so visitors can drop in treats or toys for the dogs and cats. I whipped up four tugga toys and stopped by to hand them out.

Back in February, I wrote about a pitbull mix named Beebe, so named because someone threw him over the fence into the backyard of the governor’s mansion.

While in his foster home with Out of the Woods, he learned to obey hand signals and jump through a hoop. Even with these skills under his belt, Beebe remained in foster care for almost a year before a young man named Chris saw his photo.

Chris tells it like this: “I was working at the country club and my boss got an email with Beebe’s photo. He showed me the picture and I instantly wanted him.”

This was to be Chris’s first time to adopt a pet, although he had owned several Pit Bulls before. After checking with his landlord, he brought Beebe home. Beebe is the only pet in the house where he is potty trained, kennel trained, and continues to learn more commands from Chris.

Check out these photos of Beebe in his new home:

Beebe’s adoption can teach us a few things about hard-to-place breeds like bully breeds. The odds were stacked against him with many counties in Arkansas banning Pit mixes and still countless others who aren’t too trusting of the breed because of ingrained beliefs about these breeds. Out of the Woods has their work cut out for them.

First, OOTW spent a lot of time and energy on training Beebe to be a good house dog. A trainer worked with him while in foster care to teach him to respond to hand signals. He was also evaluated by several trainers to see how he responded to other dogs and people.

Once the rescue organization figured out Beebe’s needs and what Beebe had to offer, they took good photos and wrote an excellent profile for him on Petfinder. They even went the extra mile and uploaded multiple videos of Beebe showing off his newly found skills.

It took a while, but Out of the Woods didn’t give up on finding Beebe a forever family. They kept spreading the word until the right person found him. Good job, Out of the Woods!

Thank you for adopting, Chris!

There’s a LOT of animal-related activities going on this time of year! Check out the Events tab for a complete listing.

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Last week, I wrote about a family that adopted a puppy from the local humane society. This week, we’ll hear from Sandy Dolberg, Little Rock resident and member of the Little Rock Dog Training club, who adopted Lucky, an adult, all-black ,purebred Pug, five years ago.

Sandy’s home already included another Pug and an American Straffordshire Terrier. So, why add another? Sandy said she had wanted another Pug for a while and also wanted to try brace obedience training with the two of them.

Side note: I looked up “brace obedience” on YouTube, and you should too because it’s pretty cool. Brace obedience requires you to have two dogs of the same breed attached to each other by a short leash while they work together to compete in the show ring.

When Sandy got a call that the Humane Society of Pulaski County had rescued a bunch of puppy mill dogs, she went down to look at the Boston Terriers. She hadn’t planned on adopting that day, but when she saw Lucky, “It was love at first sight.” she said.

It may surprise you that Sandy found a purebred dog at a shelter, but according to the ASPCA, 25% of dogs who enter shelters are purebred. While I believe mixed breeds are just as good as purebreds, Sandy’s story goes to show that you never know what you’re going to find at your local animal shelter/rescue.

If you’re wondering how Lucky gets along with his fur-siblings, his mom says they get along pretty well. When Sandy first brought him home, he was calm and subdued, “But, he came out of his shell. Now he’s vocal and wild!” she said.

He’s not ill-behaved though. Lucky has been a student at the Little Rock Dog Training Club since 2008 when he first learned “sit”, “down”, “stay”, and “come”.

He even does the dog show circuit where he’s won five titles from AKC Companion Dog (CD), Beginner Novice (BN), Rally Novice (RN), Rally Advanced (RA), and from UKC United Companion Dog (UCD). The following photos show Lucky and his brother Bo at their most recent show in Little Rock:

Bo and Lucky

He’s quite the clown with that tongue sticking out! Thank you for adopting, Sandy!

Are you thinking about adding a pet to your family? Petfinder is the best place to quickly search online for adoptables in your area.

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Advocating for animal adoption is a lot like the American Romantic Comedy.

You prepare, wait, and hope until FINALLY the big event happens. In a romantic comedy, the couple says “I do” or kisses for the first time. In the case of animal rescue, a homeless animal goes to be with its forever family. Everyone goes home happy!

We call it a “happy ending”, but really it’s the beginning of a whole new story. If you’ve ever wondered what happens in the months and years after a pet finds his forever family, you will want to read the article series I’m starting today.

The first story I’ll tell is Angie’s.

It all started when Angie’s kids (age eight and thirteen) started begging for a dog. Their family had never adopted a pet before, but they had seen commercials on TV promoting shelter adoption and decided to go by the Humane Society of Pulaski County to look around. Angie and her husband went without the kids because, “My son has a big heart and he would be so upset that we couldn’t take all the animals home, so it was best for us to look without the kids.”

They stayed for two hours, going from kennel to kennel. The last one they looked at was a mixed breed puppy with a long tail named Lexi. Angie’s husband was smitten with the shy girl. The longer they played, the surer he became that this was The One.

Etta’s first day with her new family!

When they took her home, Angie said, the puppy they renamed Etta was so skittish, she cowered when the wind blew. It didn’t take her long to come out of her shell, though.

Etta is now four months old, having spent one of those months in Angie’s home. She has her own blanket and pillow and all the family’s attention since she’s the only pet.

Angie describes Etta as extremely loyal and sweet. “If I go to the kitchen to wash my hands or something, she will lay on my feet while I’m standing at the sink. She follows me everywhere.”

At first, Angie was a little apprehensive about adopting a dog with an unknown breed because she was worried that aggression would surface later on, “But,” she tells me, “so far so good!”

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Zazzle is having a sale on ALL products if you enter the code SUMMERISOVER at checkout. That includes the Cute Guys and Kittens Calendar! So, what are you waiting for? Head on over to our Zazzle store and order one today!

(Update: 8/31/12. The Calendar has moved to this address. Please disregard the originally posted link.)

Let’s face it, not every dog is going to fetch the paper. If your canine does what he wants when he wants, these glasses are for you! Each glass in a set of four has a simple, whimsical cartoon of a dog openly disobeying a basic command. Very funny and reasonably priced!

Choose from either a dog or cat design, these sheet metal renditions of our favorite pets are lighthearted and fun. The colorful glass with a fish shape for cats and a bone shape for dogs will look nice hanging on someone’s porch or in a garden. Pricing is about what you’d expect at $36.

Poolboy has been a fixture on Alice 107.7 for eight years. Currently, you’ll hear him on the morning show with Heather and DC. I recently received a tip that he’s a cat guy, so I contacted him about posing for the calendar and he said YES!

This morning on the air, he told his fellow DJ’s about the photo shoot he was going to and he tried on outfits for his listeners to vote on:

That’s his cat Toonces he’s holding.

The shoot went really well and we learned an important lesson: teenaged cats are much easier to handle than baby kittens!

You can follow our progress on the calendar at Kickstarter: http://kck.st/PYEpQH